1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video game, and more particularly, to a technique for controlling items which cause changes in progress of a video game played.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are various kinds of video games. In some of them, a player character operated by a player can obtain items during the game progress. The items cause changes in the game progress, and are set to differ per kind in contents of changes and effects influenced on the game progress.
For instance, in video games where a player character operated by a player fights an enemy character controlled by a computer, an item causes the following change onto the game progress:
Specifically, when the player inputs a command to use an item possessed by the player character, a parameter representing attack power, defense power, physical stamina or the like set for the player character is increased or decreased by a predetermined value, or the player character can implement a special attack or defense.
Other than those video games where the player character and the enemy character fight each other, such video games are available wherein a turning point of a game scenario or permission to proceed to the next game stage is controlled depending on whether or not the player character has a particular item.
In the video games, the player character normally obtains an item by buying it in a store, finding it on the game field, or winning it by clearing a predetermined event such as a battle with an enemy character. The obtained item is set to be owned by the player character.
The player selects an item to use from among items owned by the player character according to the state of the game progress. Then, depending on the selected item, the game progress is subjected to a corresponding change. Accordingly, the item is a factor for giving variation to the game progress to make the game more pleasant.
For enhancing the attractiveness of the video game wherein the items are obtainable during the game progress, it is desirable to improve a control manner with respect to generation, growth and extinction of the item.